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Toronto rescuers come forward after Dutch couple's plea

Dutch couple will connect with Toronto heroes who helped them off an Icelandic volcano.

A photo that Lee-Anne Watson sent the Star to prove that it was indeed her group of friends that helped a Dutch couple off the side of an Icelandic volcano. (Lee-Anne Watson)

By Laura BeestonStaff Reporter

Wed., Aug. 17, 2016

A Dutch couple joyfully reconnected with their Toronto heroes Tuesday after their rescue story was shared online.

“We just received a very sweet email from our saviors! It was very nice (for your readers) to help. We are so happy,” Mia Flipse told the Star from the Netherlands. “I am really excited to talk with them by Skype.”

Mia and Fred Flipse were looking for a group of Torontonians who carried her down the side of an Icelandic volcano in June after she fell and broke her ankle. The Flipses said they were “very, very surprised” how quickly Star readers found them.

“Wow, the power of social media!” Lee-Anne Watson, 32, wrote in an email at 8:44 a.m. on Aug. 16. “Thanks for helping us get in touch. We were so worried about her!”

Watson and the rest of her group – who she identified as her husband Marcus and childhood friends Matt Lubbock, Sonia Viveiros, Cheryl Boyd and Ryan McKeen – all received emails from friends and family pointing out the story to them.

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The group wrote a collective email to the Dutch couple after making Tuesday. They plan to Skype together over the weekend.

“We are so happy to hear she’s on the mend,” Watson, said, adding that the group had been wondering about the Dutch couple long after their holiday ended.

The friends were vacationing in Iceland for nine days, renting a car and driving the Ring Road, the main national road that runs around the Nordic island.

June 21 was one of the best weather days the group had, said Watson, so they went to hike the volcano.

“We decided to go off the beaten track a little bit,” she added, taking a side path away from the main trail that runs through the Leirhnjukur lava field.

When they came around a bend they found Mia, on the ground and clearly in need of help. “The guys immediately jumped in to help her.”

The ankle was “just dangling there. It was hard to look at,” said Lubbock, 31, an osteopath. “She was really, really tough… We thought she was going to faint.”

Boyd and Viveiros ran ahead “to find anything or anyone to help us.” When they reached the bottom, they phoned 112 – Iceland's 911.

A first responder told Boyd that it would take 40 to 60 minutes for an ambulance to reach them at the base.

On the way back up the hill, the women found a plastic tarp, then a crate, to use as a stretcher. It took about an hour to carry her down over rocky, rugged terrain, they said.

An ATV was waiting for them for the last 100 metres of the rescue, said Lubbock. Then an ambulance drove Mia to the Akureyri hospital, where she underwent surgery then spent 10 days.

The group wondered if they’d hear from her again.

Watson said she feels “lucky that I have such a great squad of people that didn’t even hesitate (to help).”

Lubbock agreed; there wasn’t a question in his mind as to whether or not they would intervene.

It was the second time on their trip that the group of Toronto friends had come to the aid of a traveler.

A few days before, they said they came across a car stuck in a ditch along the Oxi Pass. They tried, unsuccessfully, to pull it out and then drove on to get help, which is how they knew to call 112 for Mia.

“It was an eventful trip with lots of memories,” said Boyd. “We don’t want recognition. We’re all just so happy to find them.”

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